click to enlarge - Courtesy
- "Bao3bei4" by Luna Shen
The word doesn't really have a meaning, but it sounds cool: plex. Maybe an amalgam of plush and flex? Whatever, it's the name of a brand-new arts festival debuting in Burlington's Old North End this Saturday, May 20. The event will pack visual art, video, live music, dance, circus performance and tattooing into a single night at three adjacent locations — Junktiques Collective, Ratsmission and Tank Recording Studio — corralled by North Winooski Avenue and Archibald Street.
It's not easy to invent a festival, and this one — which attracted 70-some artists through posters and social media — represents the efforts of seven volunteers: Sam Kann, Josie Bunnell, Luna Shen, Madeleine Joinnides, Olivia Sommers, Raphaella Brice and Linus Owens.
Kann, a dancer and filmmaker, and Joinnides, a visual artist, brought beneficial experience to the task. In 2018, at Middlebury College, they co-organized an event called the Nocturne Arts Festival. "It became an annual tradition in springtime," Kann said. "It was my most passionate thing at college, and I wanted to make it happen in the real world."
Now 25 and living in Burlington, Kann acknowledged that it's "difficult to find your way in the arts community" — particularly if you want to be part of an inclusive, multidiscipline affair. All the more reason to create it yourself.
click to enlarge - Courtesy
- Untitled monotype by Madeleine Joinnides
Kann is one of four Midd grads behind Plex. She's also one of the participating artists. She and her partner, Jane Schoenbrun, created a 70-minute "semi-narrative film piece" titled "Take Me With You" that she described as "nighttime Photo Booth video postcards."
Equally intriguing is her dance piece, "Men at Work," which Kann summed up as "alien flesh sculpture — two bodies moving in silver morph suits."
Owens, an associate professor of sociology at the college, is helping Plex with publicity. "I'm the odd person out in the group — the others are twentysomething women who know each other from the Old North End world," he said. "I ran into Sam last summer at another student's going-away party," he continued. "She said she was frustrated that there wasn't a lot of modern, experimental arts [in Burlington]."
In the fall, Kann applied for and received a grant from the ward's Neighborhood Planning Assembly. "I volunteered to cover other costs to make [the festival] happen," Owen noted.
Kann confirmed that the $400 grant will be used "to pay building owners for renting the spaces." She hopes the group will be able to make Plex T-shirts, too. Admission to the festival is on a sliding scale with a suggested $15, but Kann said no one would be turned away.
Last week, "We had our first walk-through with a guy who is helping us with lighting," Owens said. "It was the first real sense of the complexity of the various things happening."
"With seven organizers and almost 80 artists, it's been hectic putting final touches on it," Kann said. She expected to have a schedule available prior to the event.
If the initial Plex goes well, Kann envisions it becoming an annual festival, taking its place on the calendar with such local celebrations as the Old North End Ramble, Waking Windows and the South End Art Hop. "The first year is the hardest," Kann said. "Next year more artists will know about it and want to be involved."
Plex Arts Festival is Saturday, May 20, 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Find ticket information on Instagram @plexartsfest.